A Study of Deuteronomy 6:4
Who was the LORD speaking to in Deuternonmy 6:4 when the LORD says “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one LORD.” Rabbinic Jews see this as one God, One Yehovah.
The Rabbinic view stipulates that the Messiah, when He comes, will be a Man, a human born to ordinary human beings. His existence is derived from Deuteronomy 18:18 and as a man will rule on this earth, but never die.
The presentation here is the correct view. Alternate views, which offer little sense, could be found in Rabbi Tovia Singer and Jews for Judiasm.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one LORD” Deuteronomy 6:4
The first words of the Talmud concern the hours when this form should be recited in daily morning or evening prayer, “Hear, O Israel: Yehovah our God is one Yehovah”
The above verse is styled by our Lord (Mark 12:29) as “the first and great commandment” in the Law and form the beginning of what is termed the “Shema.”
The Jews wrote it on their phylacteries (or slips of parchment bound on their foreheads and left arms) and thought themselves not only obliged to repeat it twice every day, but very happy in being so obliged; having this saying among them, “Blessed are we who, every morning and evening, say, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord!”
The word “one” in Hebrew is ’e·ḥāḏ, אֶחָֽד which is also similarily used in Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.” Yes, two beings but in one flesh.
And it is also used in and Genesis 3:22 “And the LORD God said Behold the man is become as one of us to know good and evil and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever.”
But Christian view is that He is the Son of God who pre-existed even before being born into this world. So when the world was created in Genesis, God says “Let us make man in our image . . .” (Genesis 1:26) in the plural, that is as a singular compound, like One family, One branch of grapes.
And this view is shared King David, who wrote of the LORD speaking to his Son, “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” It ended up with “The LORD said to my Lord…” in verse 4 indicating that this is God the Father speaking from His throne to His Son, who also bears a name Yehovah. The word used for God is “Elohim” which with a sulfix “im” is in a plural noun.
Of course the doctrinity of the Trinity is false! The spirit of God is not a God just like the angels of God are also not God, nor is the throne of God a God. (For more, see What Is the Holy Spirit? and A Study of Matthew 28:19)
Joel Huan
The Mystery of Ephraim 